Water Recirculation Loop Using the Taco Comfort 006e3

[@iowaman83]

Hopefully you can reply to this message. Right now, I have a branch and tee plumbing setup in my house, and one gravity recirculating line at the furthest fixture. Works great. Now I'm installing a copper manifold system in my house for better temperature control at various fixtures (i.e., two showers running at once). I'll have five 3/4" branches running off of the hot manifold to their respective locations. I want to recirculate all five of these. I have access to basement ceiling, and the house is a larger ranch home. Can I just replicate the same setup I have now, for each of the five locations? I would use a swing check valve for each loop. My concern and the reason for the question is that with five loops, and even using the check valves, would each loop be able to hold an equal temperature roughly so that I get hot water as fast as I do now? Would I just want to use one swing check valve before each of the five loops connect together at the water heater? Wondering if having five swing check valves next to one another would make them conflict and not work right. I am thinking using a swing check valve on each loop because I think the water flow from one loop may go into the other loop. Would each loop not mix like this due to the pressure difference from the height? I might be over thinking this, but I do want to have five recirculating loops. Thank you!

[@PioneerBuildersInc]

I love it, but I confess that I I'm not a licensed plumber. I would love to know what you end up doing and how it plays out

[@virgil3241]

What I dont understand is, on a retrofit. How can adding this for the farthest sink, affect the other sinks on another level the same distance away. Example. Upstairs in my house, the farthest sink away is the kitchen. Downstairs, its a bathroom. So how can adding one of these make hot water arrive faster at 2 seperate locations? And as well, do the same for other fixtures in the house. I have tankless as well, I dont want my tankless system to always be firing to have an endless loop of hot water running back and forth in the lines all day and night.

[@PioneerBuildersInc]

You could use the Taco Comfort Hot Link system. It's pretty cool.

[@virgil3241]

@@PioneerBuildersInc Thing is, you would need to this sort of thing for every faucet that you wanted, not just one, Or is it do it for one, and it works for all?

[@PioneerBuildersInc]

@@virgil3241 I couldn't tell you for sure, but I'm sure the folks at Taco could tell you

[@thenexthobby]

The video describes fixtures located on a loop, which makes this easy (one return line.) For houses like yours and mine with fixtures NOT all on the same trunk or branch, you'd have to get more sophisticated. Basically, you do use multiple return lines and then balancers at the water heater so that each return line flows enough back into the cold side at the water heater. I'm still searching for a video that explains this well. I did find one from Mechanical Hub a few years ago that showed two balancers.

[@virgil3241]

@@thenexthobby I contacted Nortiz, they said it can be done, but since its an add on, would circulate more of course and shorten the warranty since ist being fired more then it would be stand alone. Maybe ones that come with them built it would be better. For me, Ill live with it, insualte all my hot water pex line as far as I can reach in a finished house, and move on

[@MarkPerry-d4p]

Can that recirculating pump not be triggered on and off via a remote thermostat on the return line?

[@PioneerBuildersInc]

There may be other ways to control it, but I am unaware of them

[@gregorilopez]

Using the Grundfos system this poster - kzbin.info/www/bejne/qH_QqaJsi6ybgtEsi=JewVtOWmUPsnEw7y - did a smart outlet mod to reduce pump run time for his system. I appreciated his detail and thought process as I have sometimes been accused of possessing a similar insatiable appetite for delving into the minutiae and intricacies of matters, reveling in the exploration of the fundamental principles and finer details. The modification not be applicable here but I thought the information would be of interest. @danschaller1628

[@rosendolaroya2519]

😊

[@PioneerBuildersInc]

🙂